Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 749: The Missing Armored Forces
"One tree is not enough. Generally, in order to minimize errors, we need to test the annual ring density of at least three to five fog trees, whether they are main trunks or supporting roots." Mo Jue said.
With a swish, accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of wood fibers breaking, four more sturdy fog-dwelling trees fell down.
Mo Jue immediately used the tool that looked like a vernier caliper to measure the growth rings of the cross-sections of the Mist Trees, then took out a pen and a notebook to do some simple calculations. Finally, he nodded to Ke Lan and said, "That's right. The depth of our current location is exactly 500 meters, with an error of no more than 10 meters."
"It's really 500 meters?" Thirty-three muttered, "Just now I felt that we walked at least three or four kilometers. Even if we don't count these twists and turns, there should be at least one or two kilometers, right?"
"We have spent several years verifying this measurement method and have never made a mistake," Mo Jue said confidently.
"Let's not talk about this for now," Ke Lan raised a hand, "By the way, during that exploration, your father and that Uncle Hong disappeared here, right?"
"The depth is five hundred meters, but not in this direction." Mo Jue spread out a slightly wrinkled, hand-drawn map. On this map, the outline of the entire gray fog forest was outlined with a bold black pen.
Looking down from the sky, the shape of the gray fog forest is like an old rag thrown on the ground with irregular and wrinkled edges. Ke Lan, who saw the real-life map taken by the drone, had to admit that this hand-drawn map was very accurate. He even suspected that the person who drew this map traced it by covering the paper on the electronic map.
At the top of the map is a scale. This is a map with a scale of 1:100,000, which means that one centimeter on the map is equivalent to one kilometer in reality.
At the edge of the gray fog forest, blue dots were used to mark the camping sites and forest entry points frequently used by several logging teams. Five centimeters within the edge, a striking red line was used to circle the border of the forest - this circle of line was naturally the famous "red line".
This map is indeed well drawn, but its "accuracy" is only limited to the edge and outer areas of the Gray Fog Forest, while the interior of the forest is blank.
"We entered the forest from Camp No. 6." Mo Jue pointed to a blue dot in the southwest direction, then moved his finger nearly thirty centimeters to the upper right, that is, to the northeast. "And the entry point for our exploration was Camp No. 11, which is more than 20,000 meters away from here."
“In other words, even if we just walked in a straight line, we still can’t reach the place you explored in the first place, right?” Thirty-three concluded.
Mo Jue nodded: "Yes, that's right."
"But maybe the body will 'come here by itself'... The place where the golden retriever disappeared is also far away from where we entered the forest, but we still ran into it." Ke Lan smiled, "Be optimistic, at least we are not in any danger now, and we don't have to worry about getting lost. We have plenty of time."
"It's true that we have plenty of time, but trying to find traces left by the logging team in such a large forest... it's like looking for a needle in a haystack." Ivan sighed. He subconsciously took out a compass from his pocket, but the magnetic needle on the dial was spinning around and couldn't stop.
"The method of judging the direction by the density of growth rings is useless here." Sanshisan looked at a tree stump that Asano Akira had just cut down. "The density of the growth rings of the mist trees here is impossible to tell in all directions. Even if there is a very slight difference, the density is all arranged in a mess."
Ke Lan raised his head and looked directly upward. Above the dense canopy of the mist-dwelling trees was a thick gray fog that was so dense that sunlight could not penetrate it at all. It was obvious that this plant could synthesize nutrients on its own even without photosynthesis. In the periphery of the gray fog forest, sunlight and rain might still play a certain guiding role in the growth of the mist-dwelling trees, but in the area beyond the red line, these external factors were completely isolated from the fog.
"We can't even determine the direction. We can't even get closer to the direction the woodcutters explored." Ivan sighed. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we can't even determine whether we are sinking or floating."
"Like a headless fly." Thirty-three added.
"Ke Lan, can your 'navigation' determine the direction in the forest?" Mo Jue looked at Ke Lan with a glimmer of hope.
"No, I can only lead you along the route given by the 'navigation', but if we want to go somewhere without the 'navigation', it won't be of much help." Ke Lan said.
"I think the situation is a bit risky... The reason we are not lost at the moment is based on the premise that Ke Lan has obtained the 'navigation', but if we lose the navigation..." Ivan murmured.
"No, no, no, you misunderstood me." Ke Lan shook her head repeatedly, "This 'navigation' is actually equivalent to a hard insurance policy - no matter whether we are within the navigation range or not, as long as I want, we can be guided back to the original route at any time. Although navigation is useless in other places, if we want to go back, we can do it anytime and anywhere. As long as our depth does not exceed 35 kilometers."
"So that's how it is?!" Ivan's eyes lit up - to him, the words on the stone tablet were just a string of indecipherable "ghost scribbles", but to Ke Lan, having this thing was like having a switch that could be reopened infinitely... No matter if they were lost or encountered some other obstacles, as long as no one got separated from the majority, Ke Lan could bring everyone back to the navigation route at any time.
"You're right. This is indeed a solid insurance policy." Ivan nodded. "With this thing, we can explore without restraint at depths beyond 35 kilometers."
"Then we can just pick a direction and go straight ahead?" Thirty-three raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah." Ke Lan took out a game coin from her small bag, threw it upwards, then grabbed it and spread out her palm.
The pattern on the game coin is a cartoon-shaped Type 01 rifle, and the muzzle is currently pointed at Ke Lan at one o'clock.
"That's it. Let's explore in this direction first." After saying that, Ke Lan did not forget to drive a steel stake with a direction indicating arrow into the spot. If nothing is found in this direction, he will activate the 'navigation', bring everyone back here, and then explore in another direction.
This method was stupid, but very reliable... Anyway, they had plenty of time, and the supplies they carried were enough for everyone to stay in the Gray Mist Forest for three months.
…
"I feel like we're not out exploring, but more like taking a hike." Sanshisan held the safety rope with one hand and rested the other hand behind his head. "People are always like this. After hearing about the existence of a hard insurance, they can't help but relax and are no longer as nervous as before."
"Many of the ruins you have explored should be more dangerous than this one, right?" Mo Jue asked Ke Lan, "I heard that for those A-level and S-level ruins, not even one out of ten of the advance teams that entered could come out alive. Is that true? I think it's a bit exaggerated..."
"Not an exaggeration at all." Thirty-three put away his relaxed expression and said seriously, "On the contrary, in order to get more people to join the industry of ruins hunters, Ark has always been working hard to exaggerate the treasures in the ruins and downplay the dangers of exploring ruins... There are a lot of stories about poor boys getting rich overnight and people who owed huge debts paying off their debts and making a lot of money on the Internet, but those who entered the ruins and never came out again rarely enter the public's field of vision."
"There are indeed many cases of people getting rich overnight, but compared to the number of hunters who died in ruins, they are rare. However, the public media rarely reports this kind of data. If you want to know the specific inside story, you can only find it on professional ruins hunter websites or forums." Ivan explained to Mo Jue, "But you have to pay to register an account on such websites, and those high-end and professional websites are basically invitation-only. It is impossible for non-industry insiders to get an account... Of course, ordinary people prefer stories that have been processed artistically rather than cold data and report records."
“Not even one out of ten people can make it out alive. This statement is not an exaggeration at all. In fact, the reality is even more cruel than this… But as far as I know, there is a legendary hunting group in the circle of relic hunters, which is an exception among exceptions.” Thirty-three said with a meaningful smile.
"The legendary hunting group you mentioned... is it your 'God Hunting Group'?" Mo Jue's expression was a little complicated. She really wanted to complain about the other party's self-boasting, but the actual situation made it impossible for her to find a point to refute.
The God Hunting Group can indeed be considered a "legendary hunting group". What makes them legendary is not only their rocket-like rise in the ranking list, but also the fact that they have created a record that has never been created by any other hunting group.
Since its creation, the God Hunters have explored two S-level ruins (Aguna Tor and the Bottomless Sinkhole), one A-level ruin that is as difficult as an S-level ruin (the Molten Mine after the earthquake), and there are rumors that they even participated in the battle of the Bronze City Ruins between the Ark and the Heretic Sect, and played a crucial role in the destruction of "Alexandria"... The danger of this battle is equivalent to exploring three S-level ruins...
And all this was accomplished in just one year.
This is not the most outrageous thing... The most outrageous thing is that after exploring so many high-level ruins and even participating in the battle of the Ancient Bronze City Ruins, this God Hunting Group did not lose any members!
For anyone in the industry who is familiar with the level of ruins, this can definitely be called a miracle!
The first casualties among the official members of the God Hunting Group occurred after "Alexander's" "Final Judgment" hit the Ark, but those dead and injured were only the logistics personnel who stayed behind in the hunting group's base, and none of the real core members were lost.
Based on this record alone, no other hunting group in the history of the Ark can surpass it.
"Then how did you get involved with the official Ark?" Mo Jue couldn't help but ask.
"If you knew about this, even if we didn't silence you, you would be 'physically wiped' by the Ark's top management when you return." Ke Lan made a gesture to keep quiet. "You just need to know that what we are doing now is of vital importance."
Just when Mo Jue was about to ask something, Ivan, who was holding a bunch of detection equipment, most of which had already failed, suddenly stopped and said, "A large amount of metal reaction was detected ahead."
"A reaction of large amounts of metal?" Ke Lan also stopped. "There shouldn't be any mineral veins under the Gray Mist Forest, right?"
"At least we have never found any mineral veins in the places we have explored." Mo Jue said immediately.
"Go and have a look."
Everyone walked forward, and the space barrier pushed away the fog. A rusty "Type 906" light tank that was half buried in the soil appeared in everyone's field of vision. Next to the tank, a "Walker" bipedal tactical mecha leaned obliquely against a thick supporting root. Most of the cockpit of the body had been "swallowed" by the supporting root. Countless slender vines pried open the cockpit cover of the "Walker" to create a finger-wide gap and drilled into the cockpit.
"This should be the equipment of the armored unit that was buried in the Gray Mist Forest." Mo Jue said, "We have found a broken leg of a mecha abandoned in the forest before... But to be honest, we have never found any trace of this unit at a depth of 500 meters."
"Where is the deepest place where this unit's traces have been found before?" Thirty-three asked casually.
"It's less than 300 meters deep." Mo Jue said, "For people who are not familiar with the Gray Mist Forest, being able to go 100 meters behind the red line is already a remarkable thing."
"By the way, didn't you notice anything wrong?" Ke Lan walked around the wreckage of the tank. "Although the Type 90 tank is a light tank, its body width is still 2.8 meters. The width of the forest here is not wide enough for the tank to pass through... How did it get here?"
"That's true... If the bodies of the dead soldiers were moved by indigenous creatures or mist trees... who would move something heavy and inedible like a tank?" Sanjusan Ivan also fell into deep thought.
